


Little Bird

by StarMuse



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, IW and EG didn't happen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Infinity Gems, Mild Smut, Multi, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Past Abuse, changes canon, original infinity stone, pregnancy mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 22:57:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20281261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarMuse/pseuds/StarMuse
Summary: This is the character summary of an OC named Wren, but I really like her story and thought I would post it and depending on if anyone is interested I might write this out as a full reader insert story. So if anyone is interested in reading this as a reader insert, please make sure to comment!Wren grew up in a place called "The Academy", which was like the Red Room but the children there had powers. In The Academy she meets the Winter Solider and is rescued years later by Captain America.(I'm not sure how to write a summary for this without giving away major plot points! It starts off as Winter Soldier/OC, but turns to Steve/OC, and then ends as Bucky/OC/Steve.)





	Little Bird

**Author's Note:**

> I made up the stone in the story. It's called the Mother Stone, and it's an original infinity stone with the power over life.

1917 a comet the size of basketball breaks through earth's atmosphere and devastates a small nature preserve in northern Canada, leaving a crater the size of a football field.

A small group of local scientists arrive on the scene first, accompanied by the Canadian government.

It becomes immediately apparent something strange is happening, because the molten crater is teeming with life. Grass and flowers have grown seemingly over night. The near by animals are all agitated when the scientists get near the crater.

Doctor Adelaide Rose is the first to brave the crater, after having to fight off a raccoon. She scoots down and peers at the rock, at first she's unimpressed. As she gets closer she notices the surprisingly smaller than expected black rock is cracked in half and in the dead center, embedded in the comet like a hidden fossil, is the most beautiful gemstone Adelaide has ever seen.

It's a milky turquoise, shimmering with six other colors inside.

Adelaide is smart. The best at what she does, despite being a woman in a male dominated study. But she had to admit, this very moment, she does something stupid.

She touches the gemstone.

She feels a strange fire shoot down her body from her fingertips. She recoils, looking at her hand to see if there’s any damage. Growing under her fingernails she sees tiny clovers, which she brushes off in a panic on her clothes.

Then she hears the voices. The thrumming in her head. Her brain is almost throbbing.

_"Dumb broad. Should have known not to let a woman down there."_

_"What is she doing? She's contaminated the sample!"_

_"I wish I was at home. It's meatloaf night."_

_"Oh god oh no, is this like them space men? Martians?"_

She looked wildly around at her colleagues, two of which are looked at her pointedly. One looked pale and the last is staring longingly at his car. Nothing of their mouths are moving, but she hears their voices.

She turns to the stone. And she smiles.

....

One could say that was the day Adelaide Rose, the real Adelaide Rose, died. The woman who worked harder than any man to get where she was.

The woman that would now become a monster. A warden to many innocent prisoners when she discovered the power of the stone.

The second she touched that stone she was shown power normal humans could only dream of. A power she craved to understand. To control.

It took many years to cultivate The Academy. Years of which she did not age. It was 1939 and she still looked 45, despite the fact she should be well over 60. She gained control of her abilities. The one the stone gifted her with. She could read peoples minds. Push her thoughts in to others heads. She used this ability, at first, simply for her benefit. To get better pay. To keep her job. To get a better job. To keep the stone out of the governments hands.

As far as the government knew, the stone doesn't exist. That night in 1917 was just a comet. No magic gemstone.

She continued to study the stone in secret. The more secrets she unlocked, the more questions left unanswered. It started off as a curiosity, turned obsession, and once she realized what she could do... Not even the world was enough to satiate her desire.

It was the Nazi's that helped her form The Academy. Nazis. In Canada no less! She decided it was time to expand, and let out a little whisper of a magic blue rock and Johan Schmidt all but knocked on her door.

Even the famous Red Skull's mind was no match for Adelaide. He lent her scientists and soldiers, all for just a sweet whisper and an empty promise for power.

It started simple. This is to learn, she's a scientist after all. A beautiful Middle aged woman, who just happened to make your skin crawl, would never hurt any body. She was a _mother_, after all.

Simple cause and effect. Touch the stone. Gain powers. If you were worthy, of course. If not. Touch the stone... die. The deaths vary in ways. They go from explosions, painting the walls with visceral gore. To burning from the inside out, leaving just a pile of ash. Turning inside out. To plants, filling up lungs and bursting roots from chests. All leaving behind a stain to which flowers would grow.

As time went on, Adelaide came to find out the powers were always given when it was a child who touched the stone.

Strange, she thought. Of all the soldiers, the strong men with resilient hearts none survived the stone. But a child? And Adelaide herself? What was the connection?

Now. What did Adelaide want to do with all these super powered children? Having the ability to read minds or move things with their thoughts.

Hydra was more than happy to make them in to weapons.

And The Academy was created.

For years it was like clock work. Abduct children. Orphans that no one wanted. Give them powers. Adelaide trains them to use their powers while studying them in cruel and creative ways, and the soldiers of Hydra taught them espionage and murder.

It was what even the little girls in the Red Room had nightmares of.

Everything was perfect. Adelaide was learning the power of the stone. She was in control. And she was the mother to new children until they were old enough to die for Hydra. And they always did.

That all changed one fateful day in 1989.

Adelaide looked the same. The only person still alive from the first time The Academy was created. Nothing was changing. She was content, yet bored. She wanted more. But the children died when they were cut open and examined from the inside out. She was restless. Agitated. When the guard came barging in on her while she was having afternoon tea she inserted a headache in to his brain so bad it caused an aneurysm to explode and he died on the spot.

The guard that came after knocked and was met with a polite smile.

"Something is happening with the stone."

And that day everything changed.

...

It was beating like a heart. Softly and evenly spaced. Adelaide watched the transformation every day in absolute awe.

It first started when a strange fleshy film grew over the stone. Like the part between an egg and the shell.

Then the stone itself started changing. Beating. Soft. Moist.

Adelaide was of course the first to notice the strange shape forming around the stone was in fact, a human zygote.

Why? She didn't know. But the stone was coming alive. And she couldn't wait to be a mother again.

It took the standard nine months before the infant took a breath and let out a loud wail in the lab. And she was absolutely beautiful.

A baby girl with light brown hair and milky turquoise eyes.

Adelaide held her hand against the baby's chest, feeling the stone turned heart, beating like a humming bird fluttering against a cage.

"Yes... like a hummingbird.... you are a little bird, aren't you? My darling Wren."

...

Through her life, Wren knew one thing. There's no life outside The Academy. Mama told her so. Anyone who walked passed the garden fence was dead.

At the ripe age of five, Wren was all too aware what dead meant. It was everywhere. From Disney, to the news, to the door down the hall she's not allowed to go in but hears screams come from when she's trying to sleep at night. The other girls, all older than her, tell her to just ignore the screams.

At the ripe age of ten, Wren realized maybe this isn't a normal life. All the other girls and boys are older than her. At night when they lay chained to their beds, she hears them whisper about a mythical place called home. A place where mama doesn't cut you open and papa isn't a new man every few years.

Wren knew since she was 7 that she was different from everyone else. Mama loved her special. And even at that age, she knew that wasn't a good thing.

She trained earlier than the other girls. Every girl there was at least five years older than her. None of them born here. All of them talked normal. Knew and understood big words. They also all had powers, but when Alice tried to read Wren's mind once, she began screaming and her nose erupted with blood. Wren had a headache after.

The egg test. A test she was a part of ever since she could walk and mildly talk.

She isn't sure what it's supposed to prove, other than that she's useless and dumb.

She watched the other girls stand in front of the table as mama places an egg on the counter. Mama tells them to break the egg without touching it. Most girls can, and it varies on how. Sometimes the egg explodes. Other times it cracks. And one time the table flew up and smashed the egg against the ceiling.

Wren was never able to crack the egg. She hated the egg test because it made mama disappointed. And when mama was disappointed, Wren didn't get to eat for up to a week. She was thrown in the hole. A basement under The Academy that smelled like blood and pee. It was dark and so cold her skin would freeze to the floor and when she was finally able to move, she had to rip a layer or two of skin off to do so.

Today, Wren decided at the ripe age of 11, she was going to crack the egg.

Wren stood in front of egg. Mama watched her patiently. She wasn't sure what to do. She the longer time ticked by, the more scared she got. Break! Please break! She begged in her mind so loud she was sure mama could hear her.

Her mind wandered. She was going to get punished anyway. So she stared at the egg and let her brain go somewhere else.

She wondered what the chicken that laid the egg was like. Was it white or brown. Did brown chickens start off the same as white chickens? Small and yellow like in her old picture book?

Mama sighed. She was disappointed again.

She started towards Wren but stopped when the room was filled with the distinct sound of chirping. She looked down towards the egg, just in time to see a little beak poke through. The room watched in amazement as the little chick fought its way out of the egg and stumbled, yellow and wet with weak legs around the table.

The egg was broken.

Mama smiled.

After the emergence of her powers, Wren's training started. Despite it being rough, the hydra men not caring if she was a little girl and tossing her around like a punching bag until she was strong enough to fight back, it was always clear to everyone that Wren was mama's favorite. Mama was kinder to her, and at the same time more cruel.

That, being coupled with her being the youngest, Wren was babied any opportunity she could get by the other girls.

Because of this she grew up both damaged and incredibly sheltered. She doesn't know how to be a person properly. Doesn't know how to emote properly. She's used to the pain and suffering and smiles so care free some times it's like she's just an innocent kid and the woman she calls mother doesn't routinely kill her for fun now.

Death was a constant in Wren's life. And she got well aquatinted to the room at the end of the hall, which most nights now hold her screams. And the older girls hate that they're thankful that this beacon of light in human form is in that room when they aren't. Because unlike Wren, they can't sleep off death.

Wren is 16 when she first meets the Soldier. She over hears the hydra agents talking about "The Asset" or "The Winter Soldier" while one of them has her pinned against the wall.

They say he's coming to keep the little freaks in line. He's had training with the girls in the red room and they're going to try a similar approach.

He starts off by stalking the halls at night. Surveillance, mama said. But the hydra agents snickered and told you it's to keep you in line. He's the monster in your closet and he's going to snatch you up if you leave your bed.

Wren was always too curious for her own good.

Laying in bed she hears footsteps. The other girls tense. The ones that are awake are laying so still, it's like they're already dead. The ones that asleep are crying from another nightmare.

Wren slips out of her cuffs and the girl next to her whispers a scared "don't!"

But Wren has seen monsters before. She sees them every day when she looks at her mama. She wants to see what this one looks like too.

She crawls on the floor towards the door. She hears at least three other girls breathing heavily and whimpering. Alice whispers, "you're going to get yourself killed!"

But Wren can't die. So why should she be afraid of this monster.

She slides the door open and is immediately met with a pair of legs in black tac pants. The combat boots are heavily worn. Her eyes travel up the one armed vest covered in buckles, briefly flitting to the silver arm with the red star.

And she's met with the pair of the most beautiful eyes.

This isn't a monster. This is an angel.

He stares at her, gun already pointed to her forehead. But she looks at him with awe.

His finger brushes the trigger. The Asset has orders. He remembers the orders. If one escapes, put it down.

"You're so beautiful." Wren whispers, looking passed the barrel of the gun and in to his slate blue eyes.

The Asset pauses. Something inside him stirs. It almost feels like a deeper part of him is waking up from a long sleep. Disoriented. Scared. Confused.

His finger drops from the trigger and he nudges her back in the room with his boot and closes the door.

Wren is still, pressed against the door as she listens to the sound of his boots against the hard wood floor grow quieter and quieter.

She lays back down and has a dream of blue eyed angels.

...

She doesn't see him the next morning. In fact, she doesn't see him until months later. Alice tattled on her. Not about the Soldier, but about last night.

Wren was awake again. Listening to the sounds of his footsteps as he paced the halls. She wasn't an idiot and knew better than to test her luck again. She wanted to. To see his blue eyes again.

It was the sound of a rattrap going off, followed by the sickening squeak cut short.

She slipped off her cuff again and tumbled to the corner of the room where the trap was. It was right next to Alice's bed. Alice watched as she opened the trap and plucked up the limp mouse. There was a soft teal glow and the mouse wriggled back to life in a startle. Wren gently carried the scared thing to the hole in the wall in the other corner.

Mama was both happy and not happy.

Wren was keeping secrets. But her powers were progressing. She could bring things back from the dead.

Mama decided Wren needed to be watched to make sure there are no more secrets. And who better that to watch her precious daughter than the Soldier who knew nothing but to follow orders. The soldier wouldn't lie. And best of all, the soldier wasn't a smug brat like Alice.

Mama didn't stop to think that a soldier's heart was sometimes more powerful than his broken mind.

Wren was both upset and happy that the soldier was a new constant in her life. He trained with her. Stays with her during her meals. And on the occasions she was allowed in the garden, he simply watched as Wren laid in the grass and let the sun hit her skin.

He didn't talk. Not for lack of trying on Wren's part. She was 17 and still very curious. She wanted to know who the soldier was, and the only thing she knew about him was they he had to have fallen from heaven.

But that was okay. She talked enough for the two of them. Some times she didn't think he was even listening as she rambled on about what she thought a real school would be like. And what it would be like to ride in a car.

It's four months in he finally makes a sound and it's one she least expects.

She's in the garden. She was good so she was allowed the lay in the grass. She was promised a full hour for a month because she was able to fully heal a hydra agents gun shot wound before he bled out.

She was talking about what she thought normal teenagers would do and she came to the realization they would go on dates! Then she wondered out loud what you do on dates? Then in progresses to kissing. She stares up in to the trees and blurts out.

"Kissing is weird! Why do people do it? Touch mouths? Tongues? Does it feel good?"

And she nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears the deep rumble of a laugh. She turns to the Soldier, ever so vigilant. His eyes are crinkled with mirth and his lips are turned ever so slight to upwards.

"You...." he says in a hoarse voice, gravely from the lack of use.

"Have to try it to understand."

And in his eyes dances an expression she can't place. Like he's trying to pull a memory from thin air. It's there but not quite.

"Would you kiss me?" She asked and he turns to face her in what almost looks to be alarm.

His face is dancing with more expression than Wren has ever seen.

"No."

She falls back, disappointed before he softly adds.

"You're too young."

She perks up.

"So you will kiss me when I'm older?"

He winces, seemingly realizing he's opened a can of worms.

"Maybe. When you're an adult."

And she remembers. She brings it up again in the same garden months later on her birthday. Between then she has noticed more about the soldier. He talks more when they're in the garden. Only when he knows they're alone. His eyes swim with something new, something alive. She had thought he was beautiful before, but he went from an angel to a god.

Sometimes when he responds to her, he has a strange accent. A drawl that's clearly American. He calls her Doll. Sweetheart. Darlin. He doesn't talk about his past; he grows quiet when She asks. But there are times it sneaks in without him noticing.

It's her eighteenth birthday. She reminds him at breakfast. And lunch. But it's when they're alone in the garden he finally acknowledges it.

She's staring in to the tree line. Wondering what it's like beyond the garden gates. Is it really just death? Maybe the death out there is better than the death in here.

She doesn't register he's in front of her until he kneels down, gently placing a wild daisy behind her ear.

"You...." he looks unsure. Scared.

"You're an adult now."

She smiles.

"Do I get my kiss?"

He breathes out and she shudders. He so close she could feel his hot breath against her lips.

And he leans in, but stops a centimeter from her lips. She closes the distance and finally understands what the big deal kissing is about.

Things with the soldier only grow from there.

Mama is happy; Wren's powers are progressing. She can bring men back from the dead. Men who have been dead up to eight hours. Wren is rewarded with more time in the garden.

Sometimes the soldier disappears for up to a month at a time. He always comes back different. Like the first day they met. But when she touches him, it's like he snaps back to her birthday in the garden. She doesn't understand it but she knows he's hurting. He's doing something he doesn't want to.

She's twenty when she realizes she might be in love. The different kind of love. Not the love she feels for Mary, Jenna, Arthur, and Adam. They are her brothers and sisters. This love is the grown up kind. The kissing kind. The kind that makes you do stupid things to help them kind.

They're in the garden. She's wearing the same white dress mama always makes her wear. The make her look younger. More innocent.

The soldier is staring at her legs. She doesn't hear the catch in his throat when she lifts her arms to stretch and the dress rides up her thigh.

She only sees that he's looking at her in a way that gets the other hydra agents killed by mama. The same hungry eyes but so very different. Longing. Adoration. Hunger. Fear.

She can feel it rolling off of him.

She looks at him with the same eyes and they kiss again for the first time since her last eighteenth birthday. But it's different. So very different. He kisses her like he's devouring her. And she gives in so easily.

He needs this control. Craves it. Wants her so fucking much he feels like he's going to explode. He feels like a man again. A person. She makes him feel like a person. Ever since he saw her staring at him with those big milky teal eyes when she was sixteen he felt like he wasn't a prisoner. That he could choose his own life and he knew he would always choose her.

It was uncomfortable when he entered her. She remembers the older girls say it would hurt like nothing ever felt before. A pain she would willingly give him. But it didn't hurt. It just felt weird. Until it felt good. Then amazing.

It alternated between slow and fast. He was so close to her she felt like he was going to crush her bones and crawl inside her skin. He was heavy, but it gave her a sense of comfort. She was safe. He wanted her.

She came with a burst of energy and milked him until he came with a strangled moan that he forced down her throat in a kiss so fierce the bones buried beneath The Academy could feel it.

They came out of their blissful haze to see the grass in the garden was now a foot taller, and there was more flowers than there used to be. But they didn't register that. All they saw was each other.

Wren gazed at the soldier. Her soldier. And said

"I’m going to save you."

And he smiled because in a way, she already has.

...

Mama was not happy. Wren has never seen her so angry before. She was twenty-one and woke up feeling sick for the first time in her life.

At first mama was excited at the interesting new development. But when the tests were done, mama was furious.

"Pregnant!"

She screamed and Wren felt her blood grow cold. She had long since stopped fearing her mama, long since stopped fearing death. But now. It wasn't her life she feared for.

Mama went on a tangent. How she raised Wren. Treated her kinder than any girl here. The other girls were out killing and dying, and Wren got to stay inside and play pretend. And mama instantly knew who was to blame.

Wren begged mama not to hurt him.

"I'm not going to hurt him. But you'll never see him again. And if you do, neither of you will remember!"

The soldier was taken away. He fought. At first he was confused. Then he saw Wren's crying face and he immediately fought the agents trying to take him away.

Mama used her power, made his brain swell until he was on his knees with blood dripping from his nose and ears.

"You filth. Do you have any idea what you did? You've soiled her! A mutt having pups with a purebred gets more mutts!"

And his eyes fall to Wren’s in a terrifying understanding.

"Mama, please!" Wren begs. Begs in his behalf. Begs for his life despite the fact he's damned her with his cock.

"We'll take care of him. Wipe him until he can't remember what pussy is." His handler at the time tries to defuse the situation.

Mama calms down.

"Do what you want with him. I have a little bitch to deal with."

Wren watched at her soldier is taken away, crying as she tells him one last time.

"I'm going to save you!"

...

Wren doesn't remember much after that. Mama made sure of it. After that, she feels like something is missing. A big chunk of her soul is gone. She tries to remember but her mind goes to the garden and there's a empty figure there. Just out of reach. She doesn't know who it is or why she cries when she thinks about daisies.

She fights more. Her mood is unpredictable. Nothing scares her. Not even mama.

And that scares mama.

Wren killed someone for the first time when she was twenty-three. It was an accident. She was practicing her powers in combat when the agent rushed her and she pressed her palm against his chest and roots sprung from his mouth and his body wrapped inside out as a tree burst through his body.

Her mind was racing. Fix it. Fix it. She pressed her palm to the tree and slowly the man came back from what looked like a backwards explosion. The man took a deep breath and threw up on the floor.

Wren turned to mama and mama looked scared.

The final straw was the garden. After two years Wren was finally allowed in the garden again. She doesn't remember what she was being punished for to ban her from the garden. But then she thinks about it too hard and she remembers a daisy and ghostly sensation on her lips and between her thighs.

She stared at the gates.

The soldiers with her acted at her guards and knew the rules. When she walked towards the gates and touched the metal, they shot on sight.

She only hesitated. Turning back to see her mama’s horrified face as the bullets spit out of her skin and her wounds healed.

And she went back to the gate.

She made it in to the forest, but not that far. In reality, she didn't know where she would even go. What life would be for her outside of The Academy? The darts hit her and she was down with the final thought of resolution no matter what life was like outside the gates, she was going to live it.

She spends the next couple of years under water. A tank made for her. Thick tubes with large needles in her back pumping poison in to her veins as she floated endlessly under the clear water.

...

Rescue Wren thought would never come, that didn't exist, came in a flurry of red white and blue.

It was a mission Natasha was surprisingly passionate about. During her time in the Red Room, the rumors of The Academy were what helped the girls sleep at night or kept them awake.

It was always "it could be worse. You could _THERE_"

Or "if you don't do what you're told, you'll be sent to The Academy."

Growing up it was a ghost story she was half convinced didn't actually exist. It was by pure chance they found it, in Canada of all places.

Steve was looking for Bucky and enlisted Natasha and Sam's help. Natasha caught a trail; a whisper that Barnes might be searching for the place the Red Room had nightmares of.

Why Bucky Barnes, the ex winter soldier, was looking for The Academy, Natasha didn't know. What she did know, was that she was a hell of a lot better at searching than he was and found it.

She actually almost attacked Steve when he even thought about waiting. Wait and see if they could intercept Bucky when the soldier finally found what he was looking for.

But then he was not so nicely reminded of the horror of the Red Room Natasha faced; snidely commenting that waiting could cost people their lives. Steve felt like an asshole for even thinking about it.

The mission was set to take all the avengers available. Which were Steve, Natasha, Sam, Vision, and Wanda. Plus a few shield agents for good measure; because rumor has it The Academy has kids that could blow your head up with their mind.

They had a solid plan, which boiled down to get in, take down all hostiles, get prisoners, and get out.

Shit hit the absolute fan the second they passed the garden. Hydra agents came out like ants from an anthill. Wanda and Vision were stuck outside while Steve and Natasha barely made it in. Sam was going through all angles, side to side, up and down.

Gunshots rang out, Steve fought agent upon agent as he searched rooms for the prisoners. He was slowly coming to the realization that there might not be any anymore. The thought was confirmed when he hit the bedroom and the beds were all pushed to the side, covered in dust and mothballs.

"Don't think this place has been running for a while. A year? Maybe two?" Steve guesses, talking in to his comms.

"There’s still something here. If this place wasn't important there wouldn't be this many agents." Natasha confirmed, finding a similar room on the other side of the building.

"I'm sensing something inside. Something... powerful. Be careful, Captain" came Vision's ominous warning, and Steve has to bite back a sarcastic reply. He's been told he's becoming sassy in his old age, but honestly he's always been like this. He's just finally getting comfortable enough to show it to the team. The only person who would know his attitude was Bucky.

_Bucky_. Something was here and it was important to Bucky. He had to find it.

He tossed his shield, but the hydra agent managed to duck the last second and the shield flew passed him and through the doorway.

Steve cursed and tussled with the agent, slightly praying the sound of breaking glass wasn't important as he knocked the agent out.

He scrambled in to the room and felt his throat close.

She was swimming. Eyes closed, hair floating around her like a halo. She was beautiful, floating like an exotic fish in a tank. A tank, which he realized, his shield punctured and was slowly leaking out water.

The man in the white lab coat was typing furiously, pressing a button with a sigh before Steve slammed his head in to the desk.

Steve turned in alarm as liquid pumped from the tubes in the ceiling straight in to the woman's back.

He cursed. He didn't know what that stuff was or how it affected the woman in the tank. He didn't know how to use this weird computer and what keys to press to get it to release her.

He looked at his shield and decided to open it the good old-fashioned way since he was already half way there.

He twisted the shield, breaking the glass until it completely shattered, the water flowed out so fast and deep it soaked him from the knees down.

The girl collapsed in the dry tank and he lunged forward to keep her away from the glass.

He gazed ominously at the tubes in her back, hesitantly reaching back and pulling one out.

Christ. The needle was bigger than he thought and winced at the sight. Should he pull the other one out? Wait for a doctor?

Wren could feel herself becoming more alert now that significantly less sedatives where being pumped into her. She awoke with a start, finding herself in the strong grip of a man that looked like he jumped out of a comic book.

"Sorry, sorry! I don't know if I should take it out or wait. Damn. Natasha, I've got a possible prisoner here, looking more like experimentation." Steve was fumbling. Talking half way to the girl in his arms and half way to the other avenger in the building.

With all the strength she could muster, Wren reached back and yanked the cord pumping poison inside of her as Steve let out a surprised gasp.

There was a moment of silence, to which Natasha was talking through the comms but Steve couldn't say what exactly she was saying. He was focused solely on a pair of milky teal doe eyes and a face that looked like it was sculpted by Aphrodite.

But it was her, who spoke. Who said the words he desperately wanted to say as she stared in to his blue eyes and envisioned him as an angel. It all felt so familiar yet entirely different.

"You're so beautiful."

Steve felt like his heart plummeted out of his chest in in to her small hands.

"Rogers!" The angry voice in his ear startled him out of his daydream.

"Copy?" He cleared his throat; slowly standing and helping Wren find her footing.

"The possible experiment. Hostile?" Natasha tried again.

"No." He replied with too much certainty for someone having just met this person.

Wren stumbled a bit. Not having walked for two years would do that. She was so used to floating, the weight of the world felt so painful.

Watching her stumble and shiver, with damp hair and droplets of water in her lashes, Steve did what felt natural and picked her up. She let out a surprised squeak, and Steve felt his heart hammering at any noise she made.

Wren felt safe in his arms. A strange feeling. Almost like something she's felt before but when she tries to remember she can only picture the garden, with grass too tall and the feeling of a daisy behind her ear.

She curled against him and felt both whole, and like she was missing a very distinct piece. The void was just smaller now.

Steve felt the same.

...

The mission was a success. Hydra agents were captured as the lone prisoner was rescued. Of course, all of the avengers were wary of Wren and very concerned why Steve seemed to instantly trust this girl enough to bring her directly to their facility instead of a shield base to be evaluated.

Tony immediately assumed mind control, but Wanda concurred that she would be able to sense if Wren was using any mind powers.

Vision agrees, but did mention that she was most likely the strange power he sensed.

Wren was out like a light. Sleeping restfully for the first time in... who knows when.

It was decided by Tony and Natasha, the two most suspicious members of the group, that they use a combination of BARF and Wanda to see this girls story.

They see her life. Horrifying. Terrifying. But then they get to her 16th year and things get fuzzy. There's obviously things she's trying to remember. A fuzzy, ambient figure that not even Wanda can pull out. The horror is separated by the blur of a figure in, if you squint, what looks like a garden? It's clear it's a person. But this person has been scrubbed out and trying to get them back gives Wanda a headache.

The only clear picture they could get was of the woman they came to know as Adelaide Rose standing in front of the blurry figure as it's being dragged way by nondescript Hydra agents.

"I'm going to save you!"

And then she's under water.

The team feels dirty. They trust Wren now, but at the cost of her privacy. Tony justifies it with a "we had to know."

But it's weak and his tongue feels heavy in his mouth.

"I'm going through the documents they had in the lab. Wherever Adelaide Rose is, I'm going to find her." Natasha is the first one to make a move to leave. A fire burning in her eyes.

"I'm going to help." Tony follows, knowing Natasha didn't need help finding Adelaide, but might not fully understand the lab work in a way he could.

One by one they slowly found reasons the leave the room until it was just Steve.

And he watched Wren sleep with the steely resolve that nothing bad is ever going to happen to her again.

...

Falling in love is a funny thing. Sometimes you don't know it's happening and sometimes you're too aware.

Steve knew with Peggy he was falling in love. He knew the second she he saw her punch that cocky soldier in the nose that this was a dame he could fall in love with. And he did.

Losing her was the second hardest thing that happened to him. Losing Bucky was the first. Finding Bucky was almost as hard as it was losing him.

With Wren, he didn't know. He thought love, true love, was something that only happened once and he flubbed his only chance when he crashed that plane in the snow and woke up 70 years too late. He got some piece of mind knowing Peggy was happy in the end. She moved on.

When he met Wren he knew he needed to protect her. She wasn't like Peggy. Wren was small and soft. The more he got to know her, the more he understood.

Wren didn't like hurting people. In sparing matches, she would pull her punches and would much rather get hit than do the hitting. It broke his heart when he came to the realization that it was because she was used to being a punching bag.

Wren was both smart and naive. She believed in storybook endings, kissing in the rain, the little girl being the chosen one who saves the world. But she also knows horror stories are real, because as everyone saw she lived one.

She has a strange childlike innocence about her. She cries during Disney movies but doesn't flinch reading horrible mission reports. The second she's given money she hands it to the nearest panhandler. If she could, she would adopt all dogs.

And for some reason, she can't stand to look at daisies.

Steve comes to the very startling realization that he's in love with her almost a year after she's been with the avengers in a very sad way.

A meeting is called, one, which Wren doesn't attend because she's not an Avenger. A video is played, catching everyone's attention before Wanda can even close the door.

It's a time lapse of a stone; Vision recognizes to be like the one on his forehead. It’s a document in the lab of The Academy and they watch in awe as the stone transforms in to a baby. It stops with a video, Adelaide holding the infant in her hands, pressing a palm to the crying child's chest.

_"Yes... like a hummingbird.... you are a little bird, aren't you? My darling Wren."_

There's silence as they all process this, only to be interrupted by Wren's soft voice from the door Wanda forgot to close.

"I'm not a person."

They all turn to look at her, her expression is utter anguish and Steve's heart is screaming out to her.

She turns and Steve's the first to follow. Everyone else clueing in on what might go down as the blond man follows Wren to her bare room in the facility. The one that they insist is hers, but she still feels like she doesn't belong there.

"Wren, sweetheart, wait!"

_Sweetheart. Doll. Darlin._ She's crying even harder now and Steve doesn't know what to do.

"I'm not real!" She demands as he grabs her forearms and tries to pull her in to him, but she pushes away.

"You are real! You're a person! You're name is Wren and you're more human than anyone here." His voice is straining because he's fighting his own tears.

She's beautiful. Strong. Amazing. Why can't she see that?

Why... why does he see that too much?

And before he even registers what he's doing, his lips are on hers and she goes lax in his arms.

For a split second she's in the garden. She's eighteen asking the void for a kiss.

Then she's here. In her room in the Avengers facility and the most beautiful man she's ever met is kissing her silly and she hands him half her heart. She can only hand him half because that's all she has left. She doesn't know where the other half went and right now she doesn't care. Because she knows Steve Rogers will keep it safe for her.

They kiss desperately. Filling each other up to the brim with so much emotions. His lips trail down her jaw to her neck. Whispering "You're real. You're a person. A beautiful person." Against her skin.

Her hands are in his hair and she's moaning how he's the beautiful one. He's her hero.

And they make love.

...

Steve wakes up the next morning completely wrapped up sky blue blankets and Wren’s arms. His head is buried between her breasts with his arms around her waist and her hands are stroking his hair. He hasn't slept that good since... Well fuck; he's not sure he ever slept that good.

Wren feels safe. Secure. Loved. So full of Steve. The ache in her heart is minimal. The void is looking in the other direction. She can breathe. She can love.

When she wakes up, Steve embarrassedly asks her out on a date, telling her he's sorry they did it in the wrong order.

Wren's so excited to go on her first date, she's kissing his face all over while he laughs. They don't make it out of bed for another few hours.

Sam definitely teases. Natasha looks like she wants to, but just shakes her head with a smirk.

For as long as they've know him, Steve has never slept in passed 8. It was almost noon when the two finally walked out with matching blushes and goofy smiles.

But before their love story can progress, a mission is called needing Sam, Wanda, Steve, and Natasha in Nigeria. The last straw before the Sokovia Accords are kick started and James Barnes is located.

The avengers are so keyed up in fighting each other, finding James Barnes, they don't realize at first that Wren missing.

Information is leaked to the government about what exactly she is and she is taken in to custody. The Avengers are too busy finding Bucky and fighting amongst themselves that they don't realize she's been taken and branded government property as well as legally not a human being.

She's back in a cell. This time she cries at the thought of daisies and sky blue bed sheets. The garden and a promise for a date.

She gave both pieces of her heart away and is left with nothing but emptiness.

...

It takes a full year for the mess to be settled. They had to fix themselves before they could get Wren. She wasn't taken to the raft like Wanda and Sam and Clint and Scott. She wasn't taken to Wakanda to be fixed like Bucky, whom was an absolute mess talking about birds and gardens and short white dresses.

Trials happen. The accords are rewritten. The avengers are back together, plus with the winter soldier, and just like that fateful day in The Academy they swoop in and save Wren with a public outcry.

The little bird will no longer be caged.

Her first time in a car (conscious) was anti climactic. She's sad. Steve is the one who picks her up. He had to stop himself from punching every government official in the face on his way to get her. She was exactly the same and he hated that she seemed so unaffected because she was so used to being in a cell.

"I knew you'd come for me." She said, her head pressed against the window as she watched the streets pass in a blur.

He lets out a soft sigh because _fuck_. He hates himself that it took so long. That he didn't notice sooner. He wants to say he's sorry. This is all his fault. He should have never let anything happen to her. But instead he says.

"I love you."

She turns to him and smiles.

"I-"

_"Pregnant!" _

She startles. Her eyes going wide as she looks around. She could hear mamas voice as clear as day.

_"I'm not going to hurt him. But you'll never see him again. And if you do, neither of you will remember!"_

She can't breathe. She's missing something. She's missing someone. This feels all too familiar. She was this happy before.

Steve almost hits one of Tony's expensive cars as he pulls in. He's too aware Wren's having a panic attack. One he caused. He knew it was too soon. He may have had these feeling for her for over a year, but they never even went on their first date!

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to freak you out. Breath, breath, baby." He turns off the car a little too fast and turns to her.

"I love you too!" She sobs, folding in in herself.

"I don't know what's wrong! Something’s missing! Someone's missing!"

Steve races out of the car and to her side where he pulls her in to his lap and cradles her on the floor in the garage.

He kisses her head, rocking her back and forth. Both of them repeating over and over again that they love each other.

They hear something drop, a startling clang if mental, and Steve turns to see Bucky standing in the entryway of the garage with a toolbox at his feet.

For the week he's been here, the closest to outside Bucky's gotten was the garage where he spends his time mindlessly tinkering with Steve's old bike. Now he's just staring at the scene, his face devoid of emotion but his eyes swimming in pain and confusion.

For a second too long, Bucky and Steve just stare at each other before Wren dries her tears and turns to look at who made the noise.

Eyes so blue they had to belong to an angel. She can almost feel the cold metal of a gun pressed to her forehead. She sees a vision of red stars and tall grass before there's nothing.

Bucky walks forward. He can't help himself. She haunted his dreams ever since he escaped Hydra. His first memory of her was always the last.

_"You filth. Do you have any idea what you did? You've soiled her! A mutt having pups with a purebred gets more mutts!"_

Before he remembers fully. The training. The garden. Her eighteenth birthday. The sex in the garden that made the flowers grow. The first night he saw her, sixteen and so tiny as she sat on her knees in the doorway when he pressed a gun to her head. The first words she ever spoke to him. The first words that woke him up. Made him human again.

"You're so beautiful." His voice comes out broken, and so pained.

Steve immediately understands. He's smart. He connects the dots. The void in her mind. The blur of a garden in her memories and Bucky's tired ramblings of a garden and a short white dress. The daisies.

_Someone's missing. _

But Wren just blinks; her cheeks flush as her body fills with warmth like she's sitting out in the sun.

She politely says thank you and tears stream down Bucky's cheeks as he swallows and nods.

...

Everything if properly fucked for a while after that. Steve doesn't ask, doesn't have to. He knows. And Bucky knows that he knows. Their relationship is both stronger than ever and more strained. Bucky can't be in the same room with Wren without feeling like he's going to shatter. Steve feels guilty because his best friend went through hell and he stole his fucking girl so he pushes Wren away.

Wren has no idea what the hell is going on because Steve told her he loves her and she told him she loves him but now he can't look at her without wincing and suddenly this brunet is making her think of how weird kissing is.

They know something and they aren't telling her so she goes to Wanda. It has to do with the pieces of her that's missing and the only person with the power to get that back is Wanda.

Wanda agrees to help. She... kind of knows already. She didn't mean to, but she's a mind reader and can't control her abilities when she's sleeping and had seen Bucky's dreams and they matched Wren's missing memories. She also knows without a shadow of a doubt both men love Wren and that they both hold a part of her heart and by acting this way they are breaking it.

Wren becomes distant in her own right. She's still childish in those kind of ways. She makes a point to make sure Steve know she's avoiding him.

Steve finally breaks and talks it out with Bucky.

They're conflicted in the end. Both having the same thought of "She obviously loves him and he deserves her more than me."

It only takes one breakthrough memory for it all to come crashing back. It takes a lot out of Wanda. Wren had to heal the poor girl after because she almost gave herself an aneurysm.

The first memory is the daisy. It's always been the stupid daisy.

_The soldier... no, Bucky gingerly places the flower behind her ear. _

_"You.... you're an adult now." _

And it all comes crashing back. She heals Wanda and stomps out. She barges in to Bucky's room, seeing him in a conversation with Steve, both turning to her absolutely startled.

She stared at them and they looked very guilty, so she instantly knew they were talking about her.

"Kissing is weird!" She loudly declares before she continues with equal gust.

"Why do people do it? Touch mouths? Tongues? Does it feel good?"

Steve is confused, but Bucky. _Fuck_. He knows this.

"You..." he's breathing hard, feeling his eyes rim with tears.

"You have to try it to understand."

"Would you kiss me?" She replies, just like back then.

"Yes. Fuck. God yes." He jumps to his feet and all but pounces.

The kiss is closer to the one when she was twenty and gave herself to him in the middle of spring in a short white dress. It's full of passion. Love. Adoration. Longing. So much pain.

And Steve just watches. It hurt a lot less than he imagined. Like this was something that was meant to be. This was a romance written in the stars and he just fell in love with part of a predestined constellation.

He was okay. As long as Bucky was happy. As long as Wren was happy.

Bucky seems to realize with a snap that Steve is there and suddenly he’s holding a tool box in the garage, Wren's in Steve arms and he holds her as she sobs while they both declare they love each other.

The silence is thick. Bucky wants more than anything to kiss her again. To hold her. Give her the child that was taken away from them. The life they never had. But Steve.... it doesn't feel right. She loved Steve. Why did she let him kiss her?

"I'm sorry." Wren breaks the silence and both men take it in completely different ways.

They talk at the same time.

"I shouldn't have kissed you like that. I know you and Steve-"

"It's ok. You and Bucky have a history and you two-"

"No." She covers both their mouths with her hands.

They stop talking but she keeps her hands there as she speaks.

"I’m sorry I gave you both half of my heart and didn't even ask either of you if you were okay with just half."

They were silent, working out in their head what she meant. She slowly removed her hands.

"Both?" Bucky asks, and Steve asks more directly.

"You love both of us?"

Wren nodded.

"I'm sorry. I don't know if it's selfish. Or if it's ok. Or if it's legal?"

"Well it's not illegal?" Steve offered in between her speech.

"But I met you both in completely different times in my life. I fell in love with both of you and… I'm not me unless I love you both. So all my cats on the table-"

"Cards, sweetheart." Bucky interjects softly.

"All my cards on the table. I love both of you. And I always will. You each hold a piece of my heart and I'm not complete without you. You... you can take me or leave me, but I'm not choosing. I'm all or nothing." She nods, to herself mostly, and lets out an anxious huff.

Bucky and Steve stared at her for a long time before they look at each other. They seemed to be conversing with their eyes alone before Steve gives the smallest of nods and then Bucky returns it. Both of them knew the second she gave them the option to have her; they were going to take it. They weren't sure how it was going to work, but if they love her and she loves both of them then why fight it.

"Ok." Bucky turns to her.

"Ok?" She lets out a breath.

"Ok." Steve affirms.

She smiles and the atmosphere totally shifts. Steve lets out a small chuckle, Bucky joins in and before they know it they're all just laughing.

"Wait when am I going to finally get my date?" She stops and looks at them.

"How's tomorrow?" Bucky turns to Steve.

"Tomorrow's good." Steve was still grinning.

"Alright. I'm going to wear you out first. Welcome to join me, punk. I've been dreaming about being buried between your thighs for four goddam years." Bucky alternated from talking to Steve to Wren.

The atmosphere in the room changed once again.

They didn't make the date the next morning, due to none of them sleeping last night. They eventually made it, of course! Steve got his date. Bucky got saved. And Wren got her storybook ending.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember to comment and tell me if you're interested in reading this as a full reader-insert story! Most likely written in second person POV with the use of Y/N and no defining descriptions given to the reader.


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